There's nothing like the thrill of playing a real musical instrument. Unfortunately for most, learning can be a frustrating and time-consuming experience. That's why we built the gTar.

The gTar is a fully digital guitar that
makes it easy for anybody to play music, regardless of experience. All you have
to do is dock your iPhone in the body, load up the gTar app, and an array of
interactive LEDs along the fretboard will show you how to play.

You may be asking yourself what it means for a guitar to be "digital." While most guitars have pickups to amplify the sound of vibrating strings, the gTar has none - instead, we've designed the gTar with sensors that detect exactly what you're playing in real-time and relay each note to your iPhone, which then produces the actual sound. This makes it possible for us to do all kinds of exciting things, so let's get into it!

Start With Songs You Already Love

The free gTar app comes bundled with a library of songs that you can start playing right away. We're adding more every week and we'd love to hear your suggestions. Also, if you've been itching to play a specific song check out the Song Selection reward tier where we will work with you to get a song of your choosing on to the platform. One of the things that's so exciting about the gTar is the ability to incorporate different sounds outside of the guitar. So if you want to play a song with a big, warm synth or a booming grand piano, it's all possible with the gTar.

Stop Learning, Just Play

We think that everybody should be able to have fun playing music, regardless of how long they've been playing or how much time they have to practice. That's why we built an intuitive feature called SmartPlay, which mutes out incorrect notes as you play and nudges you along as you play through difficult songs.

Most Guitars Only Have One Level of Difficulty. We Have Three.

If you've never played the guitar before, start with Easy, where you only need to play the open strings. This gives you the chance to start playing your favorite songs right away while getting a hands on feel for the strings. SmartPlay is in effect here, so if you accidentally hit the wrong string, you won't hear anything.

When you've graduated from Easy, you can move up to Medium and start playing the frets and strings at the same time. Don't worry though, Smart Play is still in effect, so you can continue to play without the fear of messing up.

When you've mastered a song and want to take it to the next level, try playing in Hard. Here, the gTar will continue to display the correct notes, but allows you to play whatever you want. SmartPlay stops working here, so every note you play will ring out.

Go Further

Since the gTar is powered by the iPhone, it can sound however you want. Try playing around in Free Play, where you can choose from a variety of guitar models, keyboards, synths, or even drums. Free Play also provides an expression pad for tweaking sound effects (chorus, echo, reverb, and distortion) and a panel that gives you full control of the LEDs.

Where Does the Money Go?

Over the last year, we've taken our completed hardware design to China where we've been working with an amazing manufacturing team in Shenzhen that have helped us take the gTar from a schematic to a finished product. The gTars in the photos/video you see are all working, fully functional prototypes.

We've already invested in the tooling and have lined up our supply chain. We now need your help to fund the initial batch of production units. After the campaign ends, we expect it to take 2-3 months to produce, assemble, and ship your finished gTars.

Here's our team assembling the first pilot units. Due to the complexity of the gTar's assembly, we've had to iterate through more than 10 prototypes - these pilot units were built to ensure that our manufacturing processes would work at scale.

The Story of the gTar

Incident began out of a personal need for a guitar that could plug into the computer to compose music digitally. When the first functional prototypes started coming together, we were inspired by innovative musical instruments like the Monome and decided to try adding LEDs to the fretboard. We started to see how fun and easy it was for someone with no musical background to interact with the bright, colorful lights and we knew we had something worth pursuing.

The gTar grew out of a series of hacks and we're very excited to see what the rest of you do to tweak and customize yours. We plan to offer an SDK in the future, so if you're interested in building apps for the gTar, shoot us an e-mail (dev@incidenttech.com). The gTar is also USB-MIDI compliant, so if you're interested in hacking the gTar to create/perform music, we'll be releasing some tutorials and hacks soon!

Does the gTar need to be tuned?Since the gTar is entirely digital, it doesn't care whether the strings are in tune or not. Keeping reasonable tension on the strings will improve the performance and sensitivity of the gTar.

Where does the gTar get power from? The gTar has an internal battery that lasts between 6 to 8 hours on a full charge. To both power and charge the gTar, you can use the included USB charger or plug the gTar into any standard USB dock on a computer or charger of equivalent power.

What phones will be supported? Currently we plan to support the iPhone 4/4S. We hope to support other devices in the future.

How do I get the gTar app? The gTar app will be available for free in the App Store before we ship the gTar. It is already been built and approved.

Will this teach me how to play on a "normal" guitar? The strings and fret layout of the gTar has been designed to be virtually identical to that of a traditional guitar, playing it will teach you the same fundamentals that you would need to play on a traditional guitar.

How do Song Selections work? If you've selected any of the reward tiers that offer you a Song Selection, we will work with you to integrate a song of your choosing into the app. Since some things (like licensing restrictions) are out of our hands, we can't guarantee that we'll be able to include your first choice. However, we'll work with you to find something you like and will enjoy playing on the gTar.

Can I integrate the gTar into an existing guitar?The gTar is a completely redesigned solution that cannot be retrofitted onto a traditional guitar. If you are a guitar manufacturer that is interested in integrating our technology into your designs, please contact us directly.

What is Little Kids Rock?

Little Kids Rock is an amazing non-profit that brings guitars and music lessons to kids and schools who wouldn't otherwise have access to them. Our special Little Kids Rock reward tier allows you to purchase two gTars - one for you and one to be donated to LKR as part of a pilot program we're launching. To learn more, check out LittleKidsRock.org!

What about international shipping?

Shipping a guitar around the world is no easy task, but we wanted to make the gTar as accessible as possible for international backers. For backers in Canada, shipping is a flat fee of $10. For everywhere else in the world, shipping is $60. You can add this to an existing pledge by selecting "Manage My Pledge" and adjusting it appropriately.

FAQ

Have a question?
If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.

Rewards

Pledge $1 or more

Pledge $25 or more

One gTar t-shirt designed by our insanely talented designer Maly. We'll be offering two designs to choose from in the coming weeks and you can vote on the colors.

Estimated delivery:Sep 2012

You selected

Pledge $350 or more

200 backers
All gone!

Limited Early Bird - One White gTar and the distinction of being one of the very first gTar backers which will eventually retail for over $449.

Estimated delivery:Sep 2012

You selected

Pledge $399 or more

557 backers
Limited (443 left of 1000)

Early Bird - One White gTar

Estimated delivery:Sep 2012

You selected

Pledge $450 or more

10 backers
Limited (1990 left of 2000)

One White gTar

Estimated delivery:Sep 2012

You selected

Pledge $499 or more

14 backers
Limited (16 left of 30)

Developer Pack - One pre-production white gTar to start tinkering with plus early access to our SDK. When we start shipping final production units, you'll have the option to send your gTar back for a new replacement.

Estimated delivery:Sep 2012

You selected

Pledge $599 or more

5 backers
Limited (95 left of 100)

One White gTar plus a t-shirt, stickers, and one song selection for the app (see FAQ). This is an opportunity to shape the gTar experience with music you love.

Estimated delivery:Sep 2012

You selected

Pledge $699 or more

2 backers
Limited (498 left of 500)

Little Kids Rock Special - Two white gTars - one of which will be delivered to you, while the other will be donated to Little Kids Rock as part of an educational pilot program we're launching. See FAQ for more information!

Estimated delivery:Sep 2012

You selected

Pledge $799 or more

19 backers
Limited (81 left of 100)

Family Pack - Two White gTars plus two t-shirts and stickers

Estimated delivery:Sep 2012

You selected

Pledge $999 or more

11 backers
Limited (39 left of 50)

Custom gTar - One Custom-Painted gTar (either a solid color or a design of your choosing), plus a t-shirt, stickers, and a song selection for the app (see FAQ for details).